This invention relates to a control for a vendor, and more particularly to a control for a vendor having means for retaining a card for verification of the insertion of a proper card by a customer.
The invention is especially concerned with control for a coded-card-operated vendor such as is coming into use in supermarkets for vending merchandise such as cartons of cigarettes instead of openshelf display. The usual sequence of operation of such a vendor is to receive a coded card inserted by a customer, validate the card, and then return the card to the customer if invalid, or if valid, enable a vend of the selected merchandise while transferring the card to storage where it is intermingled with previously inserted cards.
With respect to coin-operated vendors for relatively inexpensive merchandise such as candy, gum, or single packages of cigarettes, when a customer complains he inserted his money but received no merchandise, the store management may either return the customer's money or give him the merchandise without question. With respect to vending of relatively expensive items such as cartons of cigarettes via coded cards, however, such practice may be wholly uneconomical. Accordingly, there is the problem of verifying the genuineness of a complaint by a customer.